Does recovery team really care about city of Harrisburg?

If we are to live together as brothers and sisters rather than perish like fools, it’s time for everyone associated with Harrisburg’s debt to check their egos at the door and accept shared responsibility.

Harrisburg’s debt is a regional problem. Nothing short of a fair regional solution will resolve it. The state takeover issue isn’t solely limited to whether Harrisburg’s mayor or City Council needs help. They do. The facts clearly speak for themselves.

Also at issue is the dignity of people who feel put upon by the voter ID law, apparent partisan political intent as well as the state receivership democracy undermining process.

The unanswered Harrisburg debt question, given the Harrisburg Authority’s incinerator audit, is whether those who were responsible for assembling a recovery team and developing its plan have the city’s interest at heart.

Given the findings of the Harrisburg Authority audit and former receiver David Unkovic’s departing comments, suggesting corruption surrounding the incinerator’s financing deals, there is reason to believe Harrisburg, Dauphin County and state officials, as well as their paid professional teams, might have failed to detect flaws in major bond transactions.

A more serious question has been raised as to whether, during the late 1990s, the Harrisburg incinerator’s financing was knowingly or negligently misrepresented as self-liquidating debt. What did these public officials and their paid professionals know, and when did they know it?

Before selling or leasing the city’s income-producing assets to pay people who arguably should have exercised greater care in requesting or extending credit, why isn’t an impartial federal investigation necessary?

On top of the many questions about the city’s past are constitutional questions about the current state takeover. Can the city, having voluntarily entered into the Act 47 distressed cities program under one set of rules, be subject to a retroactive legislative rule change stripping its elected officials of their fundamental powers?

Against this background, which could be a script for a John Grisham novel, would clear-thinking suburbanites or the business community first liquidate their assets and then search for the truth? No. The Act 47 team cannot operate as though Harrisburg is like Reading or other cities.

Additionally, if the suburban or city business community were going to buy land, could the seller complete the transaction with the understanding that the sales contract is imperfect and the asset has relevant unresolved pending litigation problems? The answer to both of these questions should be no.

Bishop Sullivan

Therefore, why are politicians and business executives contending that Harrisburg’s elected officials should accept poorly drafted, clearly suspect and incomplete work?
Some of us have been down this road, in 2007, when elected Harrisburg School District board members were unlawfully dismissed for refusing to rubber-stamp financial swaps.

Harrisburg City Council should not be bullied. Added to the series of glaring missteps is the optics messaging. This city has a mostly minority population. Why isn’t there a highly competent, diverse team working on this crisis that better reflects the demographics of the residents? Why wasn’t this done with the Act 47 team’s composition? It certainly wasn’t because of the lack of area legal or financial talent.

The closest the state came, after receiving indisputably qualified national as well as local minority professionals’ resumes, was hiring former Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams However, the state apparently never allowed Williams, who teaches public finance at Harvard, to reach out to or even set foot in Harrisburg’s minority communities.

As is most of the economic development in Harrisburg, minorities are seldom seen or heard. Our taxes pay for items in which we might have, at best, token, if any, representation on development teams. Consequently, there has been no long-term minority economic development. This kind of economic and racial injustice must end.

While former receiver David Unkovic was perceived as evenhanded and diversity conscious, his replacement, William Lynch, has had to contend with a public image of being heavy-handed and associated with a team that appears racially insensitive.

The city of Harrisburg’s developed infrastructure during the last 30 years primarily benefited the region and was generally the result of city, county, state and federal concurrence.

Yes, the clock is ticking. However, the door of reconciliation remains cracked. If we are not to lose the progress we have made, real political and civic leadership, particularly from the business community, is needed. Let’s talk.
Bishop A.E. Sullivan is president of the Interdenominational Ministers Conference of Greater Harrisburg.